Biden Administration Unveils Another $5.8 Billion In Student Loan Debt Relief – Forbes Advisor – Technologist

The White House has announced another $5.8 billion in student loan debt relief, this time directed at almost 78,000 public service workers, such as teachers, firefighters and nurses.

This latest round of student loan forgiveness, announced Thursday, follows fixes made to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness, or PSLF, program. Eligible borrowers will start receiving notification emails from the Education Department starting next week.

In addition, another 380,000 borrowers who have two years or less to go before receiving PSLF forgiveness will receive emails of encouragement from President Joe Biden. The president will thank them for their service and urge them to stay on track so they can wipe out their student loan debt on schedule.

“We hope this relief provides borrowers and their families some much-needed breathing room,” said James Kvaal, undersecretary of the Department of Education, in a press release.

This latest wave of student debt cancellation is tied to a payment count adjustment for PSLF and income-driven repayment, or IDR, plans. The adjustment gives student loan borrowers credit for payments that failed to count toward loan forgiveness due to onerous rules or mistakes by loan servicers.

Since October 2021, the White House has eliminated $143.6 billion of student loan debt for about 4 million borrowers, with $62.5 billion of that from PSLF forgiveness efforts.

PSLF Forgiveness Has Been Expanding

PSLF is a federal program launched in 2007 that offers student loan forgiveness to public servants who have made 120 monthly payments. However, many of those borrowers had previously been unable to access that forgiveness because certain regulations or loan servicer problems stood in the way.

In October 2021, Biden placed a one-year waiver on the program, allowing borrowers to receive credit for any past loan payments that would have otherwise been ineligible for PSLF forgiveness.

Before the waiver, the PSLF program had canceled the student loan debt of only 7,000 people. But the waiver and adjustments to the program over the past couple of years have now made that relief available to more than 871,000 borrowers, according to the Biden administration.

How To Qualify for PSLF Forgiveness

To qualify for PSLF forgiveness, you must:

• Work full-time for a U.S. federal, state or local government organization or a qualifying nonprofit organization.
• Have Direct Loans under an IDR plan. If you don’t have direct loans, you can also use a Direct Consolidation Loan.
• Make 120 qualifying monthly payments on your loan.

If you meet the requirements, you should fill out the Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Temporary Expanded PSLF Certification and Application annually, or whenever you change employers. If you need assistance, you can use the PSLF Help Tool to complete the form.